Teachers don’t understand how frustrating it can get reading the comment, ” _____ is a great student but he/she doesn’t participate in class.”

Remember that still waters run deep. I know that some teachers like to base grades on participation, but if you could only hear all the great ideas we have inside our head, you’d learn that we have some great ideas to share. In fact, we are practically masters of brainstorming.

However, it’s difficult for us to master the art of jumping in to a conversation or interrupting. We may not raise our hands as quickly as you want us to or say as much as you wanted us to, but honestly we just like to take our time to process our ideas. Does it even make a difference if we write more than we speak?

2. We are not a problem that you need to solve.

So, we may not have participated on the first day, or the second day or the first three months of school but please don’t keep pestering us about when we’re going to talk. Sometimes there isn’t a reason why we are so quiet, it’s just part of who we are. Many people tend to assume that quiet people are stuck in this quiet prison and need to be rescued so that we can enjoy life. I can assure that this is not always the case. We quiet students are quite content with the way we are… until you start pointing out our faults. We often do not need the “help” you are suggesting, we just need your patience and understanding.

3. The feeling that comes with the hearing the phrase, “Speak up! I can’t hear you.”

It was daunting enough when you caught us off-guard and put us on the spot to answer that question in front of the entire class, so please don’t embarrass us any further. We wish you only knew how much effort we put into taking the initiative to speak up.

If you can’t hear something we said please help us out, come closer and listen carefully to what we are trying to say. Please don’t belittle us in front of a crowd of people because that will do more harm than help.

4. Group projects can get really stressful for us:

Sometimes we’re in a class where we don’t have any friends and other times you assign us to a group of people whom we do not even know. There’s nothing wrong with group work and the benefits are no doubt important for our future, however quiet students are often taken advantage of in group projects. To prevent this from happening, teachers need to assign each person in the group a role, rather than allowing students to assign each other’s role.

5. We are not going to speak when we have nothing to say.

Teachers don’t understand that quiet students believe that it’s not necessary to talk when you have nothing to say. No we are not being rude, it’s just that we believe that there’s no need to force out a couple of words just for the sake of doing so. You have no idea how much time we spend trying to formulate our speech before we actually say it out loud.

We like taking our time to formulate our thoughts rather than rushing to speak. We hope someday you will understand this.

6. We have a personality.

Teachers, we know you don’t see us as the quote and quote ideal student, but if you really came to look beyond our quiet ways you’d come to realize that there’s much more to us than meets the eye. We are writers, dreamers, creators and a lot of other things you may think we never could be. We’d like to love ourselves for who we are and not grow-up to hate ourselves. Do not treat us any differently. We’re normally people who laugh, cry, have crazy obsessions, dislikes and embarrassing moments. Who knows? Maybe we even have more in common with you than you think.

7. Just because we’re quiet, doesn’t’ mean you have to give up on us.

Teachers often assume that it’s not worth talking to or getting to know the quiet students because they don’t have anything to say hence they don’t have potential. However, there are a few teachers, who will take those few extra steps to the back of the classroom to connect with the quiet student rather than judge them from a distance. We quiet students may not say much at first, but trust me we do appreciate you taking the effort.

Teachers and students may not see eye to eye when it comes to most things, but what both sides don’t realize is that they could learn a lot from each other. You may ask yourself, ” What can I learn from someone who hardly speaks?”

Well, you can learn the importance of active listening. A quality slowly going instinct when so many distractions keep us from being in the moment and truly listening to what someone has to say.

Quiet students hope that someday teachers everywhere will be able to appreciate the uniqueness we bring to the classroom and not make assumptions without really getting to know us.

The word “teacher” is a verb, not a noun. Hence this year, I encourage all teachers to break the barriers that separate them and their students and to create an inviting atmosphere where no student should hold back being themselves for fear of rejection. Teachers should aim to bring an accommodating atmosphere to the classroom where both extroverts and introverts can share their ideas and reach their potential without feeling pressurized. Your students might not thank you in- person, or write it in a card or note, but some day they may express their gratitude in an acceptance speech and thank you for giving the wallflower a chance to shine.

There is only one way under high heaven to get anybody to do anything … Yes, just one way. And that is by making the other person want to do it.

It’s a shame that policy makers and school administrators don’t seem to have read any of Carnegie’s work because had they absorbed the quote above, perhaps they may have come up with something better to offer students.

People think that school represents the perfect place to undo parenting errors. They think that by bringing in a new school rule or program, that children will be set for life. Some of the rules and regulations in a school near you include:

– Anti-bullying programs

– Sex Ed programs

– Junk Food policies

– Playground no hugging rules

– Toilet rules

– Drug programs

– Anti-gambling programs.

And it goes on and on ….

Is this really a bad thing? What’s wrong with scrapping junk food from school?

Of course nothing is wrong with instilling healthy eating habits, teaching children about what constitutes bullying and how important it is to avoid drugs. But to be successful you’re going to need more than a worthy cause.

The problem with schools taking on these issues is that schools already have a stigma for most children. Whether we like to admit it or not, most kids hate school and they hate what they are taught at school. So whether it’s a math or science lesson or its a discussion about the dangers or excess sugar consumption, the chances of breaking through are difficult. It requires a positive and creative approach.

And let’s face it, the programs eluded to above often look and feel like schoolwork. They often consist of worksheets and paired activities and feature mini-quizzes. Why do the people who put together these programs think that if they put an animal mascot on the front of the pack and crossword on page five that kids will warm to the content? No child has ever been fooled by such a gimmick.

And inflexible rules are worse. Sure, it’s not ideal for kids to be eating chips or popcorn at school, but taking away their treats is yet another way of reinforcing the stigma that schools are overbearing, ruthless and prison like. I just read that Brussels want to ban yogurts and cheese from school lunches. If I was a school kid in Brussels I would want to go home and douse myself in cheese just out of spite!

It is such a breath of fresh air when a great anti-bullying initiative or healthy eating idea surfaces. One that captures the students’ imagination and encourages rather than bans, nurtures rather than smothers.

If you want children to listen they must want to listen. Don’t shove draconian rules and anti-bullying packs down their throats. Give them something that doesn’t look or feel like school work.

Superintendent: There’s a lightbulb out? I’ll ask the Board of Education if we have any money for them.

Board of Education: The schools have enough lightbulbs. They don’t need any more.

State Department of Education: Teachers will fulfill measurable lightbulb-changing objectives based on a pre-assessment and post-assessment.

PD Coordinator: I need to develop a Lightbulb Theory Training with clip art lightbulbs and Comic Sans font. Can anyone tell me what Marzano said about lightbulbs?

Standardized Test: A) 2 B) 3 C) 3.14 D) Pineapple

Federal Government: “We see you have been changing lightbulbs but we don’t think you have been changing enough of them fast enough. All lightbulbs must be changed at a 100% rate each year or you will lose money for lightbulbs.”

Taxpayers: Why are our tax dollars being spent on things like lightbulbs?

Teach for America: The lightbulbs are going out, because the engineers are lazy slobs. Let’s replace them with someone who went through a month-long training course on engineering.

Parent: Why didn’t you call me two weeks ago to tell me the lightbulb was going to go out?

Union: This isn’t in the contract. It’s the custodian’s job.

Movie Tagline: Some lightbulbs, they said, would never be changed. She inspired them so they could be.

RT @participantname: We should think beyond the lightbulbs and inspire the light to light the bulb itself.

Education Conference Attendee: I just was so INSPIRED by that wonk’s keynote about changing lightbulbs!

Techie Reformy Post: Eventually lightbulbs will replace teachers. Kids can find the light. You don’t have to do it for them.

Student: [says nothing and doesn’t notice lightbulb is out because he/she is texting]

#stuvoice: Why is the teacher the one changing lightbulbs? Every kid should have their own lightbulb.

Maker Movement: Kids will make lightbulbs if you get out of the way and leave them alone.

Unschooler: We don’t need lightbulbs. That’s a part of factory/industrial mindset. Kids should be playing out in the sun all day.

Homeschooler: Even though the lightbulbs are exactly the same, the ones in my home are better than the ones at school.

#edchat: How do we change professional development so that teachers start changing lightbulbs instead of complaining that the bulbs are dead?

#edtech: Check out these 95 coolest, super-amazing, LED lightbulbs that will revolutionize classroom space.

2,000 retweet Twitter post: You have to think outside the bulb. #lightchat #bulbchat

TED Talk: Everything you thought you knew about light bulbs is wrong and I’m here to tell you why.

Tumblr Teacher Post: Here’s a .gif of a flashing lightbulb and a quote by Dewey about enlightening minds. Hope this helps.

This American Life: I’m not sure how many it takes, but I think we could learn something from a counterintuitive human interest story on lightbulbs. I’ll narrate it in a near-whisper.

Time Magazine: Why Teachers Are the Real Reason for Busted Lightbulbs and How Michelle Rhee Will Fix It

Internet Magazine: How An Amazing Way a 3rd World Teacher Changes Lightbulbs and Occasionally Refurbishes Lightbulbs from the Dump

Politician: Why do Finland’s lightbulbs work so much better than ours? I’ll ignore the evidence and assume that their bulbs and their entire electric grid must be decentralized.

Toddlers these days are barely out of nappies before they are playing with touch-screen toys and fiddling with iPads.

And now, it seems, they are paying the price – because when they arrive at nursery they are apparently struggling to pick up basic fine-motor skills such as holding pencils, pens and crayons.

Some nurseries have installed interactive ‘smartboards’, digital cameras and touch-screen computers to try to expose children to gadgets at an early age.

One of the learning goals in the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is that ‘children recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and school’.

Under a section on Understanding the World, youngsters must also find out about and ‘identify the uses of everyday technology and use information and communication technology (ICT) and programmable toys to support their learning’.

Some nurseries have prioritised ICT as a result and ploughed resources into improving their facilities.

Jeff Stanford from Asquith Day Nurseries – which has invested £4million in digital technology – defended the move, saying: ‘It makes children comfortable and familiar with the technology and that is extremely useful when they start school.’

But literacy expert Sue Palmer said: ‘I think what children really need up to the age of seven is real life in real space and real time, which means three-dimensional experiences.

‘We already have problems with children not being able to hold a pen or pencil.

And Felicity Marrian, from Iverna Gardens Montessori in London, said: ‘If our children are in fact the most sedentary generation ever, according to the medical authorities, and already spend more time watching television than they do in school, do we really need to add computers and other screen-based devices to the nursery environment?’

A survey of 806 parents and early years staff carried out by website daynurseries.co.uk found that only 26 per cent believed that being exposed to technology actually benefits children in nurseries.

Davina Ludlow, director of daynurseries.co.uk, added: ‘Children are increasingly exposed to an overwhelming amount of technology at an early age.

‘The use of iPads in nurseries, which are displacing the traditional methods of learning and playing activities is concerning.

‘This poll shows that the majority of people clearly want to see early education and childhood play protected from this technological creep.’

Ms Palmer who is also the author of Toxic Childhood added:‘I think what children really need up to the age of seven is real life in real space and real time, which means three dimensional experiences.

Make it safe for your child to talk to you. When your child comes to you to talk about a bullying experience, try to avoid having an emotional reaction. It can be scary for a child to hear that a parent is planning to lash out at a peer or parent. Calmly ask questions until you feel you completely understand the situation (Is it bullying, a peer conflict, or a misunderstanding?). Try not to leap into action right away, but instead focus on making sure your child feels taken care of and supported. Without blaming the bully, remind your kid that everyone has a right to feel safe and happy at school, and applaud the courage it took to take a stand and talk to you. Make a commitment to work with both your child and the school administration to resolve the issue.

Teach your child to say “Stop!” or go find an adult. Research shows that most bullies stop aggressive behavior within 10 seconds, when someone (either a victim or a bystander) tells the perpetrator to stop in a strong and powerful voice. You, as the parent, can role-play an assertive response. Demonstrate the differences between aggressive and assertive and passive voices, as well as body language, tone of voice, and words used. If staying “stop” with an assertive voice does not work, teach your child to find an adult right away.

Talk with your child’s principal and classroom teacher about the situation. Make it clear that you are committed to partner with the school in being part of the solution. Also emphasize that your expected outcome is that your child’s ability to feel safe and happy at school is fully restored. Ask the principal to share the school’s bullying policy, and make sure any action plan begins with notifying other teachers, recess aids, hallway monitors, and cafeteria staff so that everyone who comes in contact with your child can be on the lookout and poised to intervene should the bullying be repeated.

Arrange opportunities for your child to socialize with friends outside of school to help build and maintain a strong support system. Try reaching out to neighborhood parents, local community centers with after-school activities, and your spiritual community. The more time your child can practice social skills in a safe environment, the better. Children who have friends are less likely to be bullying victims—and, if your child is bullied, friends can help ease the negative effects.

Don’t go it alone. When supporting a child through a bullying situation, parents often discover previously unnoticed issues that may contribute to the child’s vulnerability. In addition to working with the school to help resolve the immediate issue, parents should also consider reaching out to physical and mental healthcare providers to discuss concerns about diagnosed or undiagnosed learning issues, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, etc.

Encourage your child to stick with a friend (or find someone that can act as a buddy) at recess, lunch, in the hallways, on the bus, or walking home. Kids are more likely to be targeted when they are alone. If your child doesn’t have a friend to connect with, work with the school to help find someone to act as a safety partner.

If cyberbullying is an issue, teach your child to bring it to the attention of an adult, rather than responding to the message. Many children fail to realize that saying mean things about someone on the Internet or through text messaging is a form of bullying. Make sure your child knows that you take cyberbullying seriously, and that you’ll be supportive through the process of handling the situation.

Help your child become more resilient to bullying. There’s a lot parents can do to help “bully proof” their kids. Here are two biggies: first, provide a safe and loving home environment where compassionate and respectful behavior is modeled consistently. Second, acknowledge and help your child to develop strengths, skills, talents or other positive characteristics. Doing so may help your kid be more confident among peers at school.

Provide daily and ongoing support to your child by listening and maintaining ongoing lines of communication. When your child expresses negative emotions about peers, it’s helpful if you acknowledge these feelings and emphasize that it’s normal to feel this way. After actively listening to the recounted bullying incident, discuss the practical strategies in this article together, especially the ones your child thinks will be most helpful.

Follow Up. Even after your child’s bullying situation has been resolved, be sure to stay in touch with your child and the school to avoid a relapse of the issues. Keep the lines of communication open with your child, and learn the signs of bullying so that if another issue arises, you’ll be prepared to get involved early and effectively. Although a last resort, consider moving your child out of the current school or social environment. This may be a necessary action, and it sends the message that your child truly does not have to tolerate such treatment. Once established, social reputations among peers can be very difficult to eliminate. A fresh start in a new school environment may be a viable solution.

I would like to add another three steps of my own. Watch and discuss the following films with your child:

1. Great teachers are not superheroes; they are everyday heroes.
Teachers should not be expected to work miracles in miserable conditions. They are everyday heroes who want to be working sustainably and joyfully every day. Robert Hawke, a principal-in-residence at Achievement First, puts it eloquently when he says, “Teachers are also mothers, and husbands, and people who need to go grocery shopping and would occasionally like to spend some time volunteering at church or — gasp — reading. Yes, we should expect that they do their jobs the best they can and yes, this job requires much more than eight hours per day, but they won’t be able to continue doing these things beyond a couple of years if we also expect them to put their outside-of-their-job lives completely on hold.”

2. Great teachers are not saviors; they are inspirers.
Children are strong, magnificent human beings who are not waiting to be rescued, they are bursting to grow. Children also come from families and communities with strengths, culture, and knowledge that great teachers affirm, learn from, and celebrate. Great teachers do not swoop into children’s lives thinking that they have all the answers. Instead, great teachers inspire children to draw on their own strengths, interests, and communities to accomplish great things.

3. Great teachers are not magicians; they are practitioners.
The work great teachers accomplish — whether it is teaching a first grader how to read, conducting a middle school orchestra in a masterful rendition of a challenging piece, or helping a high school senior land his first internship — is the very opposite of illusion. What great teachers do to accomplish that work should be on display, deconstructed, and shared to improve everyone’s practice. Books like The Skillful Teacher and online networks like Classroom 2.0 are a more accurate depiction of the skills great teachers work to hone over years than movies like Stand and Deliver, which, while enjoyable, show very little in the way of good instruction.

4. Great teachers are not interchangeable; they are individuals.
Teachers have strengths and weaknesses, preferences and interests. A teacher who thrives in one particular situation might not thrive in another. Teachers are most successful and happy when they work in the subject, school, context, and communities that best fit them. Questions we need to ask when we talk about teachers include:

What kinds of schools do teachers work in? What are the schools’ systems for planning, instruction, and discipline?

What kind of professional relationships are supported by their schools? How are teachers expected to interact with administrators and with one another?

What are the cultural and economic backgrounds of their students and their students’ families?

What are the teacher’s responsibilities? Review their actual task lists and calendars to see just how different specific schedules and those specific tasks are across schools, subjects, grades, and districts.

5. Great teachers are not lone rangers, they are team builders.
Behind every great teacher, is a great mentor, and behind every great teacher who loves teaching, is a great team. Great teachers are a product of other great teachers who have built them up. They are hard to find in schools with dysfunctional adult cultures because when the adult culture is bad, teachers leave. And, while good teachers do amazing things in their own classrooms, great teachers extend their influence by partnering with the people most important to their students lives, whether they are siblings, parents, grandparents, coaches, or other teachers. Great teachers do not work alone.

Bottom line, it’s dangerous and destructive to talk about great teachers like they are superheroes, saviors, magicians, interchangeable, or lone rangers. Narratives like these prevent us from dealing adequately with real issues, such as the need to make teaching more sustainable, financially and psychologically, and the challenge of evaluating teachers amidst a great variety of different contexts. Practice recognizing and counteracting these narratives when you come across them, the teacher in your life will thank you for it.

The primary school in the Kallarkudi tribal settlement in Valparai is a one-of-a-kind institution in many ways. It’s probably the only school that employs one teacher and has an attendance of one student.

Though it may sound preposterous, the only teacher, Kalaiselvi, treks through the treacherous jungle, braving everything from elephant attacks to leech bites to reach the school and tutor her class II student.

The tribal settlement is situated 20 km from Valparai town and about 100 km from Coimbatore.

The school’s headmaster, Muruganandam, and teacher Kalaiselvi walk nearly 2.5 km to reach the Kallarkudi Panchayat Primary School and at the end of the day too, they return on foot. They are met by the tribals every day at the bus stand and escorted to the settlement.

“We have to be careful while walking through the forest as the elephant population is high in the area and attacks from the pachyderms are quite common,” P Muruganandam, head master of the school told Express.

And, it’s not enough to keep one’s eyes open for the gigantic creatures, one has to watch out for the tiny bugs on the forest floor as well. “Leeches are common along the trail and if you’re not careful, you could be left with bleeding wounds before you reach your destination,” the headmaster added.

Sources said the strength of students at the school dwindled in the last few years, thanks to the migration of tribals to the plains.

“On the instructions of higher officials, we explained to the local tribal families the various government welfare schemes for students attending the government schools. Many have promised to admit their wards and convince their relatives to admit their children as well,” he said.

“We have to wait till August, when the chance of more students joining the school is high,” said Muruganandam, adding, “two years ago the school had four students.”

The number of school-going children is low in Kallarkudi as several families from the settlement migrated to Tirupur and Coimbatore for employment, said Muruganandam.

Similarly, the student strength is low in six other tribal settlements in and around the Valparai.

The Kavarakkal tribal settlement panchayat primary school also has just one student, the Nedungkundru panchayat primary school has seven pupils, Karumutti tribal school has eight, Vellimudi tribal settlement school has nine, Poontachi tribal settlement school has 5 and the Palakkinar tribal settlement school has 4 students.

However, department officials said there were no plans to close these schools.

It is quite upsetting that 19 US States still allow corporal punishment in their schools. Below are some damning statistics taken from 2005-2006. I hope the numbers of students hit per state has dramatically lessened since then, but I somewhat doubt it. Of equal concern is the ratio of black and Hispanic children being metered out this outdated and inhumane form of punishment.

One of my biggest goals since entering teaching was that my students appreciate my classes enough to actually want to attend them.

My dream is to have my students wake up on a school morning and say:

“Hey, I’ve got school today, and that’s OK”.

Fundamentally, it is the job of the educator to teach well enough to engage their students. We have to do better than forcing our children to attend school, we have got to find a way to make them feel comfortable with going out of their own volition.

Fitting GPS tracking devices to their IDs is sending the message that our system has given up trying. It has decided that it hasn’t got the time, energy or creativity to make school palatable, so it has no choice but to make prisoners out of the school population.

Students will therefore be getting the following message:

1. School is tedious;

2. The school administration think of us like prisoners;

3. The school administration don’t trust us;

4. We ate just a number. Just a blip on a computer screen. We are not unique, special or important. Just a sheep being watched over by a duty bound shepard.

To 15-year-old Andrea Hernandez, the tracking microchip embedded in her student ID card is a “mark of the beast,” sacrilege to her Christian faith – not to mention how it pinpoints her location, even in the school bathroom.

But to her budget-reeling San Antonio school district, those chips carry a potential $1.7 million in classroom funds.

Starting this fall, the fourth-largest school district in Texas is experimenting with “locator” chips in student ID badges on two of its campuses, allowing administrators to track the whereabouts of 4,200 students with GPS-like precision. Hernandez’s refusal to participate isn’t a twist on teenage rebellion, but has launched a debate over privacy and religion that has forged a rare like-mindedness between typically opposing groups.

The civil rights complaint comes as at least a dozen Chinese students say they have been transferred from top-performing high schools to low-performing ones. The district says the students were transferred because they don’t reside with their parents — who, in many cases, live in China — and instead live in homes owned by relatives.

Private tutor Marian Kong filed a complaint on behalf of two students who she said fell victim to the district’s bias. Both were accepted to attend high-performing, Asian-majority Mills High School last fall, and lived with guardians whose addresses fell within zoning boundaries for the school. But just days later, they were transferred to lower-performing Capuchino High for failing to show proof of residency for Mills.